Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1887-03-24
AN OLD "FORTY-NINER"
TELLS HOW Boards WERE POPULAR
IzED BY CALIFORNIA PIONEERS.

lZED BY CALIFORNIA PIONEERS.
The Story of Gradual Emancipation
from the Razor-A Picturesque Lot of
Men in the Land of Gold-The Doctors
to the Rescue.
''The early gold seekers in California con-
ferred a benefit upon the country-uncon-
sciously, it is true-which l have never seen
mentioned but for which the younger gen.
Grafton can hardly be grateful enough"
The speaker was one of the old forty miners;
be was speaking of the annual dinner
at the Associated Pioneers of California,
which he had attended "When l was
young man. he continued, mo one in any
part of the United States with which was
acquainted was permitted to wear beard
There was an unwritten law against it, which
was more strictly obeyed than the statutes
against murder or robbery. A man with
full, flowing beard, such as may be seen any
where in a walk of five minutes, would have
been followed and hooted at by a crowd Of
bows in any New England town; while
mustache was an open confession that the
wearer was a rowdy and a social outlaw.
The wearer would not have been admitted to
membership in any church, nor-unless he
was a military oficer-received into any re-
spectacle circle. Side whiskers could be worn,
or chin whiskers; but the lines were drawn
against the complete thing or the shaded up
per lip by public opinion so strong that it
seemed immutable.
IN THE LAND OF PROMISE
"The gold excitement broke out, and In
almost every town and village there were
some who caught the fever and started for
the land of promise. We had hard time of
it: the fortunate fellows Just as hard a time
as the unfortunate, except for the courage
that success brings. There was no leisure,
and little inducement for self adorment in
the absence of women. We got careless about
observing the rules of our old civilized life,
and one of the first evidences of this was that
ore after another we stopped shaving. 1t
tsok too much time and our razors got dull,
or our bits of looking glass lost or broken;
and soon every mining camp on the coast was
filed with full bearded men.
Early in the fifties, the men who had left
wives and children or sweethearts at home,
and who had raked together few thousand =
dollars, began to return; some to bring their
families back and others to pay off the mort
cages on their farms and remain. We had
been free from the trammels of the old civil
ization long enough to he Indifferent to some
of its arbitrary rules, and then we were con-
ceited enough to think that our adventures
had given us the right to be recognized as
heroes and didn't mind wearing a sort of
distinguishing badge. So large number of
us returned to our old homes with much the
same appearance that we had in the mines.
ave were decidedly picturesque lot, 1
suppose, and wherever we went were imme-
diately recognized as returned gold diggers,
and received the respect among our old
neighbors that our supposititious wealth, alas
only supposititious in many cases command
ed. In no very long time there were few
towns in which there were not several re-
turned Californians; and, as the novelty of
full boards began to wear off, the real i'm
provement which boards made in some men
was seen. Huge jawed, long Tipped men came
back absolutely handsome.
DOCTORS TO THE RESCUE.
'"Then the doctors entered the field-young
men with weak lungs and bronchial troubles
seemed to be cured. At first the climate of
California and the exposure of camp life OBJ
tanned the credit, but after winter at home
it was believed that the protection given by
the beard should share the credit, and soon
many of the physicians, especially in New
England, advised their patients to cease
rapidly BY the advice of the doctor was
as satisfactory an answer to all comments as
it is in the same part of the country when
one is caught taking his 'bitters' before
dinner
at was some years. however, before the
prejudice of generations became so weakened
that preachers could wear boards without
severe comment on the part of some MEM
bers of their congregations, if not secession
from their folds to those of shaven shepherds.
1t is a tradition that the late Professor Stowe
adopted a shrewd device to rid himself of the
hated razor He was delivering an address,
so the story goes, on slavery, and as he be-
came impassoned with the subject he ex-
claimed: This curse must and will be wiped
out; the day of freedom for all men in our
land is coming, and razor shall not touch my
face until it dawns' He was probably one
of the first Congregational ministers to wear
hair ON his lip
"When it became allowable for any who
chose to wear full beard, entire emancipa-
ton followed easily enough, and men began
to trim their boards to suit themselves, until
before long they could wear mustaches alone
without causing remark. We old forty
miners created this revolution-we who came
home; and in the advantages to health, to
say nothing of the improvement of the moral
tone Of community which is caused by the
overthrow of every senseless superstition, 1
think that i'll this we did more good than did
the gold we brought home New York
Tribune.